Cyber Monday kicks off today following a weekend filled with Black Friday discounts.

It'll give you one last chance to grab some Black Friday bargains, as retailers slash their prices one last time before Christmas, and UK shops will no doubt offer some of the lowest discounts of the year in a bid to get us to part with our cash.

There's still plenty of deals on tech, electricals, and everything from fashion to flights, so if you've been waiting for a deal - now's your chance.

The history of Cyber Monday

Cyber Monday is something that - for once - started with customers, not shops.

Traditionally, the first Monday after the final payday before Christmas was the day people headed online and started their Christmas shopping in earnest.

However, when shops noticed this trend, they started getting more involved, offering exclusive deals and sales to try and win your business on a day people were shopping anyway.

There was early confusion over when, exactly, it fell. With people being paid at different points in the month, some felt the first Monday of December was right, while others thought the Monday closest to the start of December.

Now, however things have changed a little.

It's become the online exclamation point at the end of the Black Friday sales - with shops holding back a few extra juicy deals and final reductions to things they haven't sold over the weekend so far.

Sales call for some major shopping (Image: Getty)

What's Cyber Monday all about?

Following a boom in 2012, Black Friday has become one of the biggest days in the retail calender year. So much so that last year, Amazon reported a new sale every 62 seconds last year - and that's just one retailer.

The event, which takes place the day after Thanksgiving in the US, famously kicks off Christmas shopping season - in 2015, it hit the £1 billion mark for the first time in history.

In 2013, Black Friday headlines were dominated by violent scenes as rivals scrapped over the time and stock-limited bargains - with those famous Tesco videos of Brits going viral around the world.

However, thankfully, there's no such risk of serious injury on Cyber Monday - except, perhaps, the possibility of developing repetitive strain injury.

Is it bigger than Black Friday?

Yes and no. Cyber Monday is online only, so there's a lot more choice available. On the other hand, Black Friday is both online and in stores and deals tend to last around 5 days, with the best deals on the actual day. Cyber Monday is strictly a 24-hour affair.

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Black Friday 2018

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